They're a bottom 10 team now. Best bet is trade Love for picks and tank. I guess there's the possibility they could over achieve and get a 7-8 spot but they aren't going anywhere in the playoffs so whats the point?

Blow it up. Love, and anyone else anyone wants, for as many lottery draft picks they can get...in addition to their own picks. Tank it Sixers-style.

Here is the problem ... anybody that wants Love, will not be in the Lottery

Second, wouldnít it be smarter to keep him for the beginning of the season, he will probably increase his scoring average and thus more value as a trade deadline trade?

If it was me, I trade Korver (cheap contract & needed skill to playoff teams) ... as for the rest, be smart and only trade at the trade deadline for a desperate team to get max value ... except JR, get rid of him as soon (yesterday) as possible for anything ... resign Hood.

I would look at Indiana ... while they donít have a NBA championship, they have been consistently decent ... with something like 25 playoff teams in the last 30 years ... including 6 Eastern Conference Finals and 1 NBA finals appearance ... while not great, but consistently good basketball in a similar situation.

Here is the problem ... anybody that wants Love, will not be in the Lottery

Second, wouldnít it be smarter to keep him for the beginning of the season, he will probably increase his scoring average and thus more value as a trade deadline trade?

If it was me, I trade Korver (cheap contract & needed skill to playoff teams) ... as for the rest, be smart and only trade at the trade deadline for a desperate team to get max value ... except JR, get rid of him as soon (yesterday) as possible for anything ... resign Hood.

I would look at Indiana ... while they donít have a NBA championship, they have been consistently decent ... with something like 25 playoff teams in the last 30 years ... including 6 Eastern Conference Finals and 1 NBA finals appearance ... while not great, but consistently good basketball in a similar situation.

I believe I mentioned in a different thread a Love deal to land a lottery level pick would have to be some sort of three team deal.

I believe I mentioned in a different thread a Love deal to land a lottery level pick would have to be some sort of three team deal.

Easier said than done ... what would a lottery team get in return to make them want to trade a lottery pick? ... and if it was good enough to give up a lottery pick, why wouldn’t the Cavs just take it ... my guess, the best way to get a lottery pick for Love would be to trade him to a middle of the pack team and they fall on their face and you luck into a lottery pick ... to me a better plan is to trade Love for a couple young players who have not developed yet ... and hope they develop into good players ... much like Indiana did with their Paul George trade.

It'll be interesting to see how good of a coach Ty Lue actually is. I hope Sexton gets all the minutes he's capable of playing. Ship out Clarkson, JR and Thompson for the 58th, 59th and 60th picks if you have to. Send Love to Portland for CJ McCollum or Simons+Aminu or something. Burn it to the ground and rebuild it with all the draft picks you can get.

It'll be interesting to see how good of a coach Ty Lue actually is. I hope Sexton gets all the minutes he's capable of playing. Ship out Clarkson, JR and Thompson for the 58th, 59th and 60th picks if you have to. Send Love to Portland for CJ McCollum or Simons+Aminu or something. Burn it to the ground and rebuild it with all the draft picks you can get.

Never thought I'd say this, but I couldn't agree more. This has to be done from the ground up. That is the way Golden State did it. Of course, they hit on their draft picks, and the pressure is now on Altman to do the same. But they can ill afford to loose that draft pick next year, and Love will be on an expiring contract in two years and he might glean a first round pick.

Now, it's time to try to jettison those top-heavy contracts and let the re-build begin.

Never thought I'd say this, but I couldn't agree more. This has to be done from the ground up. That is the way Golden State did it. Of course, they hit on their draft picks, and the pressure is now on Altman to do the same. But they can ill afford to loose that draft pick next year, and Love will be on an expiring contract in two years and he might glean a first round pick.

Now, it's time to try to jettison those top-heavy contracts and let the re-build begin.

Altman is a genius if he can figure out a way to dump the JR, TT, Hill and Clarkson contracts.

Unfortunately, Love is at the lowest point in his career value-wise, so as Joe suggested they may get their best value holding him and hoping him getting the ball more and being the focus of the offense bolsters his numbers and value to a trade deadline move. That however, is a risk given his recent injury history.

Hopefully, they can rebuild it without a Browns level historic tanking. I lived through the Stepien years. This can't be worse.

Altman is a genius if he can figure out a way to dump the JR, TT, Hill and Clarkson contracts.

Unfortunately, Love is at the lowest point in his career value-wise, so as Joe suggested they may get their best value holding him and hoping him getting the ball more and being the focus of the offense bolsters his numbers and value to a trade deadline move. That however, is a risk given his recent injury history.

Hopefully, they can rebuild it without a Browns level historic tanking. I lived through the Stepien years. This can't be worse.

The problem with Stepien is that he wasn't trying to tank. He and his front office fools were the most incompetent group in NBA history. NOTHING Altman does can be worse.

Altman is a genius if he can figure out a way to dump the JR, TT, Hill and Clarkson contracts.

Unfortunately, Love is at the lowest point in his career value-wise, so as Joe suggested they may get their best value holding him and hoping him getting the ball more and being the focus of the offense bolsters his numbers and value to a trade deadline move. That however, is a risk given his recent injury history.

Hopefully, they can rebuild it without a Browns level historic tanking. I lived through the Stepien years. This can't be worse.

The Sixers tank plan worked. Stepien actually traded away all the Cavs first rounders for garbage veterans, so they had awful records but didnít get to use the draft picks. It actually resulted in the so-called Stepien rule, where a team cannot trade away its first round pick two consecutive years.

The Sixers tank plan worked. Stepien actually traded away all the Cavs first rounders for garbage veterans, so they had awful records but didnít get to use the draft picks. It actually resulted in the so-called Stepien rule, where a team cannot trade away its first round pick two consecutive years.

Yeah I know. I was just referencing his Browns comment. It of course remains to be seen with the Browns but as you say the Sixers have appeared to benefit quite well.

As much as it sucks I believe it's the correct move if this franchise can even hope to be a legitimate contender again. This market just is not a destination for NBA stars. You have to build through the draft and make shrewd trades.

The hubris of trying to sneak in as a 6-8 seed, which is the ceiling for this current roster, sets the rebuild back.

What's going to happen is the Cavs will try to earn a playoff seed due to ownership ego, but they'll end up around 10th in the conference, thus miss the playoffs and still not get a draft pick, since they lose the pick if its outside the top 10.

I get tanking, but I don't think you have to strip things completely down to the studs to do it. Quality franchises keep it rolling without a tank job. You can rebuild without being historically bad.

I went to the Cavs regularly during the Stepien era as a buddy who was Cavs ball boy got 2 tickets for every game. There were night where there couldn't have been 500 people in the Coliseum. I clearly remember those trades and guys like Mike Bratz, Roger Phegley, Jerome Whitehead...

I get tanking, but I don't think you have to strip things completely down to the studs to do it. Quality franchises keep it rolling without a tank job. You can rebuild without being historically bad.

I went to the Cavs regularly during the Stepien era as a buddy who was Cavs ball boy got 2 tickets for every game. There were night where there couldn't have been 500 people in the Coliseum. I clearly remember those trades and guys like Mike Bratz, Roger Phegley, Jerome Whitehead...

I agree completely ... I had a friend who worked for the Cavs during that time ... I would get in free half the time ... man it was bad.

To me it could be a selective rebuild ... when a good opportunity arises you strike a deal ... if you can get a really good deal for KLove, take it, if not hold on to him ... yea, you might take a few steps back here and there, but a complete rebuild, no ... people want to point to the 76ers as an example ... but forget about the Kings, who have been in tank mode for a decade or more. Some people want to point to GS ... but they were never in tank mode ... yes, they had a couple bad seasons, but mostly due to injuries, not tanking. Curry was a 7th pick, Thompson was a 11th pick, and Green a 35th ... donít have to have only top picks to get good.

I agree completely ... I had a friend who worked for the Cavs during that time ... I would get in free half the time ... man it was bad.

To me it could be a selective rebuild ... when a good opportunity arises you strike a deal ... if you can get a really good deal for KLove, take it, if not hold on to him ... yea, you might take a few steps back here and there, but a complete rebuild, no ... people want to point to the 76ers as an example ... but forget about the Kings, who have been in tank mode for a decade or more. Some people want to point to GS ... but they were never in tank mode ... yes, they had a couple bad seasons, but mostly due to injuries, not tanking. Curry was a 7th pick, Thompson was a 11th pick, and Green a 35th ... donít have to have only top picks to get good.

World B. Free, Kenny Carr, Bobby Wilkerson, Ron Brewer...ahhh the memories. LOL. Park right up next to the building and hear your own voice echo when you yelled during the game. Quite an era.

The Cavs' top-10 protected pick for the next two years is the only first round draft asset they currently could owe someone for the foreseeable future.

Obviously, my concern is they fail to move Love, resign Hood, and end up somewhere between the fringe of their protection and 7th/8th in the East and lose the pick. That would be moronic.

Provided he stays healthy, they should keep Love until at least the first of the year and let him regain trade value he's lost the last two years. On a LeBron-less team, I think he could be entertaining and average something like 24 and 12 while becoming a fairly desirable commodity again. If they can go 30ish games or so after moving him, they should safely finish in the bottom 10 while picking up three assets (1st round pick, solid rookie contract player, and an expiring/cap clearing contract). If they can hold their pick this year, they'll undoubtedly hold it in 2020 with their draft obligation either expiring or degrading to a 2nd round pick.

I'm not sure tanking is the way to go. Obviously they don't need to be signing veterans trying to win now. But there's a big gap between that and literally having the front office try to construct the worst team in the league.

I would see what I have with Sexton before I traded away Love. For all you know he and Love could be a great pick n pop combo and then you at least have something to build around. If you strip the team bare, it's unlikely you're ever going to know what you have with a young PG if he never has offensive talent around him.

1) Be bad enough to retain the 2019 first rounder
2) Get a young player and a first rounder for Love (late 10s-mid 20s)
3) Offload salary, probably mostly from a Love trade
4) Enter 2019-20 with a core of Sexton, Hood, '19 first rounder and maybe a Love trade asset

That would be a good next 12 months IMO. They have a significant amount of expiring and non-guaranteed salary they can get out from under between next summer and the 2020 trade deadline. 24 months from now they should be fairly far under the cap and have a defined group of 3-4 young players to build around with additional draft assets.

World B. Free, Kenny Carr, Bobby Wilkerson, Ron Brewer...ahhh the memories. LOL. Park right up next to the building and hear your own voice echo when you yelled during the game. Quite an era.

I know it was a few years later ... but we use to sit a few rows behind the Cavs bench ... they had a bench warmer named something Rogers (I think Johnny) ... a big red headed seven foot stiff who was worth price of admission for his antics and comments ... I loved the Richfield Coliseum ... you could pull in the parking lot and be in your seat in less than 5 minutes ... and leave and be on the highway in 5 ... went to a lot of games back then.